Demetrius Klein Dance Company.

Performing to Allen Ginsberg's poem Howl, the Demetrius Klein Dance Company (Colony Theater, Miami Beach, March 1-2, 1996) maintained an apocalyptic rush while showing the weight of each moment. Admirably responsive throughout an impassioned reading by John F. X. Warburton and amid Eric Fliss's cones of illumination, the Lake Worth group would thicken and then break up into triads or pairs, partners shifting--here, a limp body manipulated, there, an exhilarated spin. Kenneth Balint steadily wove through the first three parts--"Catalogue of Loss," "Accusation and Exorcism," "Litany of Longing"--forlorn for all the fury. Although the Eros of the verse emerged as too circumscribed in the movement, it became fascinating to watch word become flesh. The work concluded with a final "Sanctus," Klein's solo, where the earthly toss of his choreography shook up beatific gestures.

Giselle: an essay on deception took off with pop music--Janis Joplin, Aretha Franklin--swooping through facets of romantic turmoil. The ironies of occasional parody and hip theatricality barely strayed from the original ballet's harbor of sentiment. This was a peculiarly postmodern evocation: deconstruction as tribute. Giselle is dead . . . Long live Giselle!